The local socialists call Switzerland a “republic of
lackeys”. This petty-bourgeois country, in which inn-keeping has long been
a major industry, has depended too much on wealthy parasites squandering
millions on summer travel in the mountains. A small proprietor toadying to
rich tourists—such, until recently, was the most widespread type of Swiss
bourgeois.

Things are changing now. A large-scale industry is developing in
Switzerland. The use of waterfalls and mountain rivers as direct sources of
electric power is playing a big part in this. The power of falling water,
which replaces coal in industry, is often called “white coal”.

The industrialisation of Switzerland, i.e., the development there of a
large-scale industry, has put an end to the former stagnation in the
working-class movement. The struggle between capital and labour is assuming
a more acute character. The drowsy, philistine spirit which often in the
past pervaded some of the Swiss workers’ associations is disappearing to
give way to the fighting mood of a class-conscious and organised
proletariat that is aware of its strength.

The Swiss workers entertain no illusions about the fact that theirs is
a bourgeois republic upholding the same kind of wage slavery as exists in
all the capitalist countries with out exception. At the same time, however,
they have learned very well to use the freedom of their republican
institutions to enlighten and organise the wide mass of the workers.

The fruits of their work were clearly revealed during the general
strike in Zurich on July 12 (June 29, old style).

This is how it came about. The painters and fitters in Zurich had been
on strike, for several weeks, demanding higher wages and shorter hours. The
enraged employers decided to break the resistance of the strikers. The
government of the bourgeois republic, eager to serve the capitalists, came
to their aid, and began to deport foreign strikers! (There are
many foreign workers, particularly Italians, who go to Switzerland to
work.) But the use of brute force did not help. The workers held their
ground as one man.

Then the capitalists resorted to the following method. In Hamburg,
Germany, there is a firm, owned by Ludwig Koch, which specialises in
supplying strike-breakers. The Zurich capitalists—patriots and
republicans, don’t laugh!—had that firm send in strike-breakers, who they
knew included all sorts of criminals convicted in Germany for pandering,
brawling, etc. The capitalists supplied this riff-raff or gang of convicts
(lumpenproletarians) with pistols. The brazen band of strike-breakers
filled the taverns in the workers’ district and there engaged in unheard-of
hooliganism. When a group of workers gathered together to eject the
hooligans, one of the latter shot down a worker who was on strike.

The workers’ patience was exhausted. They beat up the murderer. It was
decided to make an interpellation in the Zurich City Council on the
hooligans’ outrages. And when the city authorities, in defence of the
capitalists, prohibited strike picketing, the workers resolved to protest
by a one-day general strike.

All the trade unions declared unanimously for the strike. The printers
were the only sad exception. They declared against the strike, and the
meeting of 425 representatives of all the Zurich workers’ organisations
replied to the printers’ decision with a stentorian cry of “Shame!” The
strike was decided on, even though the leaders of political organisations
were against it (the same old spirit of the philistine, opportunist Swiss
leaders!).

Knowing that the capitalists and the management would try to wreck the
peaceful strike, the workers acted according to the wise maxim, “In war as
in war.” In war-time one does not tell the enemy when an attack
will take place. The workers purposely declared on Thursday that the strike
would take place on Tuesday or Wednesday, whereas in reality
they had fixed it for Friday. The capitalists and the management
were taken by surprise.

The strike was a signal success. Thirty thousand leaflets in German and
Italian were circulated early in the morning. Some 2,000 strikers occupied
the tram depots. Every thing stopped. Life in the city came to a
standstill. Friday is a market day in Zurich, but the city seemed dead. The
consumption of spirits (all alcoholic drinks) was prohibited by the strike
committee, and the workers strictly obeyed this decision.

An imposing mass demonstration took place at 2 p.m. When the speeches
were over, the workers dispersed peace fully, and without singing.

The government and the capitalists, who had hoped to provoke the
workers to violence, saw their failure and are now beside themselves with
rage. Not only strike picketing, but also open-air meetings and
demonstrations have been prohibited by special decree throughout the Zurich
Canton. The police occupied the People’s House in Zurich and arrest ed a
number of the workers’ leaders. The capitalists announced a three-day
lock-out by way of avenging themselves for the strike.

The workers are keeping calm; they scrupulously observe the boycott of
spirits and wine, saying among themselves:
“Why shouldn’t a working man rest three days a year, since the rich rest
all the year round?”